R
r1ck14
Hello everyone. I was having an issue where Windows Explorer kept freezing if I chose "open with" in the context menu. I disabled the Windows Search Service and while at first it seemed to help, it didn't really resolve the issue. I then started experiencing thumbnails not loading, entire folder contents not loading, the explorer being slow (the green bar at the top never completing) and I tried pretty much everything short of a full Windows reset.
I ran system checks, used registry cleaners, deleted the thumbnail cache, etc.
After browsing around online for quite a while, I saw that others had similar problems and while some of the above fixes worked, not everyone's issue resolved (like mine).
Then it dawned on me that explorer worked fine until I opened the "downloads" folder (which I use a lot). I tried deleting everything in there and it would freeze on trying to calculate what was to be deleted. I narrowed it down to a single file and that individual file refused to be deleted. I eventually got Windows into safe mode with command prompt and was able to delete the file. I rebooted normally and the offending file was gone from the downloads folder and also didn't appear anywhere in the recycling bin. Seems there must have been something corrupt with the file.
Removing the file seems to have completely resolved the issued I had. Every folder now opens buttery smooth and the thumbnails appear almost instantly.
I wanted to post this here as I never found this as a proposed solution and the other threads were locked. Hopefully this will help someone.
TL;DR
If windows explorer is slow and often freezes, a corrupt file may be to blame. Try to isolate which folder has the offending file and once you locate it (it will refuse to be normally deleted) boot into safe mode and delete it with the command prompt.
Continue reading...
I ran system checks, used registry cleaners, deleted the thumbnail cache, etc.
After browsing around online for quite a while, I saw that others had similar problems and while some of the above fixes worked, not everyone's issue resolved (like mine).
Then it dawned on me that explorer worked fine until I opened the "downloads" folder (which I use a lot). I tried deleting everything in there and it would freeze on trying to calculate what was to be deleted. I narrowed it down to a single file and that individual file refused to be deleted. I eventually got Windows into safe mode with command prompt and was able to delete the file. I rebooted normally and the offending file was gone from the downloads folder and also didn't appear anywhere in the recycling bin. Seems there must have been something corrupt with the file.
Removing the file seems to have completely resolved the issued I had. Every folder now opens buttery smooth and the thumbnails appear almost instantly.
I wanted to post this here as I never found this as a proposed solution and the other threads were locked. Hopefully this will help someone.
TL;DR
If windows explorer is slow and often freezes, a corrupt file may be to blame. Try to isolate which folder has the offending file and once you locate it (it will refuse to be normally deleted) boot into safe mode and delete it with the command prompt.
Continue reading...